The present invention relates to razors for shaving, and more particularly, to a combination razor assembly and container for sharpening and storing the razor assembly.
Until several decades ago, the straight razor was known as the standard for providing a good close shave. Even today, some professional barbers prefer the straight razor for shaving and shaping side burns. The key advantage is that the straight razor has a permanent blade and can be sharpened to a very fine edge by use of honing strops or other sharpening means. With a steady hand, a person using a straight razor can get a very close shave for a minimum expense.
In recent years, as time has become more and more a premium, most consumers have moved toward using the safety razor. The art of obtaining a close shave with a straight razor has thus unfortunately been victimized by our modern society. The sale of safety razors, which includes a razor body and a blade with a blade guard to guide the blade over the skin, until recently was dominant in the shaving industry, especially in the personal use category.
Within the last decade, the safety razor has given way in popularity to the disposable razor that generally includes a molded plastic body with dual blades and integral blade guard or disposable molded plastic blade cartridges. These disposable razors and cartridges generally last for 10-20 shaves before they start pulling the whiskers and providing a generally uncomfortable and undesirable shave. Then the consumer must throw the entire razor or cartridge away, and use a new one. This is not only relatively expensive, but when the old razor or cartridge is thrown away, it inevitably causes pollution of the environment. The pollution results from the inability of the plastic body and the metal blades to biodegrade when placed in a landfill or the like. It is predicted that the move by consumers to demand more biodegradable products will soon lead to some restriction, if not total ban in some areas, on these disposable razors and cartridges.
Another problem with the molded plastic disposable razor or cartridge is that the blade area cannot be conveniently and completely cleaned of whiskers. In other words, there is no way to move the blade guard away from the shaving blades. This inevitably leads to a build-up of whiskers, particularly at the ends of the blade, which restricts the shaving efficiency even more.
In the past, there have been some attempts at providing a permanent blade safety razor with a built-in sharpener. Some of these efforts have met with limited success. The inventors have all attempted to make a commercially acceptable razor where the blade is reusable and can be sharpened at any time, even during the shaving process.
The typical approach for the self-sharpening razors of the past is to build the sharpening apparatus directly in the body or handle of the razor. In this respect, the Tasca U.S. Pat. No. 1,436,213 is representative. The head of the razor in this prior patented device is unscrewed from the end of the handle and the razor blade is then inserted in the opposite end of the handle to be sharpened against a strop or other sharpening means. A later similar effort is shown in the Polillo U.S. Pat. No. 2,098,465 wherein the blade is removed from one end of the razor body and attached to the distal end of the handle. Once it is so attached, the blade is then sharpened in the same manner that a straight razor would be sharpened against the razor strops.
Because of the inconvenience of removing the blade from the shaving position on the razor body, others have attempted to provide a sharpening apparatus integral with the razor where the blade can remain in place. A typical approach of this effort is shown in the De Haven U.S. Pat. No. 1,859,554. The honing stone is mounted integrally with the blade guard and as the blade guard moves outwardly one side of the blade can be honed.
One common problem of all of these prior efforts is that the razor is necessarily made very bulky. The additional structure on the razor body/handle offsets any advantage that might be obtained from having a reusable blade that can be easily sharpened. The mechanism associated with the blade sharpener is complicated and difficult to manufacture within the confines of the razor.
Another approach that has been tried but suffers the same difficulty of the razor being bulky and unwieldly to use, and thus not commercially acceptable, is shown in the Maloney U.S. Pat. No. 1,381,724. In this prior attempt to solve the problem of convenient sharpening of a permanent blade, a container is provided with a sharpening means. The blade, mounted on a removable blade guard, is placed in the container for sharpening. When the razor is ready to be used, the blade and blade guard must be removed from the container and attached to the outside of the container that serves as the handle. As will be realized, holding the entire container while shaving is very difficult. The container is not suited for comfortable positioning in the hand, and particularly for close area shaving around the lips and nose, it would be almost impossible to use. In addition, the weight of holding the entire container, the sharpening apparatus and the blade and blade holder proves to be very unsatisfactory.
Thus, there is a need for a new type of razor that utilizes a reusable blade and can be conveniently sharpened. It is against this background that the objectives, description and claims are presented herein describing my new concept.